Twitter buys mobile advertising startup

The acquisition announced on Monday (9 September) was estimated to be worth some US$350m according to the technology news site TechCrunch.

"MoPub's technology lets mobile application publishers manage their inventory and optimise multiple sources of advertising - direct ads, house ads, ad network, and real-time bidding through the MoPub Marketplace," Twitter's Kevin Weil said in a blog post.

"The two major trends in the advertising world right now are the rapid consumer shift toward mobile usage and the industry shift to programmatic buying. Twitter sits at the intersection of these, and we think by bringing MoPub's technology and team to Twitter, we can further drive these trends for the benefit of consumers, advertisers, and agencies," Weil said.

He said Twitter also plans to use MoPub's technology to build real-time bidding into the Twitter ads platform so our advertisers can more easily automate and scale their buys.

Twitter earlier this year began to allow adverts to be targeted at users based on the words written in tweets.

The fast-growing social network is expected to earn US$582.8m globally in advertising revenue this year and nearly US$1bn next year according to industry tracker eMarketer. It remains privately held, but a number of reports indicate the company may launch an initial public offering.

Source: AFP via I-Net Bridge